Continued uncertainty about how data will be migrated between the US and the EU according to the right laws and regulations is a growing problem for many businesses. This came in an article published by the American business newspaper The Wall Street Journal.
According to the business newspaper, more and more companies are struggling with the question of how to transfer their data between the US and the EU in the near future without too many problems, but according to different compliance rules. In particular, these companies, mainly American, are questioning the extent to which stricter European regulations in the field of data privacy will limit their activities in the European Union.
The most stringent EU legislation
Last year, the European Union introduced stricter regulations banning some companies from using US technology companies to store and process data. This would guarantee the privacy of the residents of the 27 member states. The Wall Street Journal found that these regulations add an extra layer of confusion around data traffic between the United States and the European Union.
The crux of the matter is that neither the United States nor the European Union has yet negotiated a successor to the Privacy Shield. The Privacy Shield was a 2016 agreement on the protection of personal data of European Union citizens processed in the United States.
In the middle of 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union, Europe’s highest court, annulled this agreement. The agreed rules of the Privacy Shield will not comply with the GDPR regulations for data sharing and especially processing between the United States and the European Union.
This was partly because US authorities were still able to request this data, despite the fact that European data was stored in the European Union. According to the European Court of Justice, European privacy legislation remains the standard if data is used in any way in other countries.
Wraith of Privacy Shield is not coming
Since then, the United States and the European Union have been negotiating a successor, but without result. Although it is known that such legal procedures take a long time, the American business newspaper believes that this is now causing more and more problems for companies.
Additionally, the Wall Street Journal notes that in the absence of clear (privacy) legislation, successive European regulations mean that US tech companies are less able to offer their services in the EU. Over the past year, several agencies from EU countries have canceled their services to technology companies because it was decided that transferring data to these companies is not in line with EU laws and regulations.
So the business newspaper is calling for more clarity about when the US and the EU will reach a new deal. Otherwise, more, especially US companies, will still have problems with their activities in the EU.
